Chief Justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo has authored 35 judgements during January 7-January 22 2026 in 1. Meera Devi vs. The State of Bihar through the Secretary of the Department of Animal Husnbandry and Fisheries, 2. Saroj Kumar Rakshit @ Nanu Da @ Saroj Rakshit @ Nanu Baba vs. The State of Bihar through Additional Chief Secretary, 3. Kamta Prasad Sharma @ Kamta Pandey vs. The State of Bihar, 4. Kaminee Kumari vs. The State of Bihar, 5. Mukesh Kumar Singh vs. The Managing Director Cum Chairman, 6. Dr. Mona Bala vs. The Patna University, 7. Uday Raj Uday vs. Dr. Usha Vidyarthi, 8. Manish Kumar Ray vs. The State of Bihar, 9. Laddu Sahani vs. The State of Bihar, 10. Firoj Ansari, vs. The State of Bihar, 11. The State of Bihar vs. Dr. Shyam Sundar Singh, 12. Ranjeet Kumar @ Ranjit Kumar vs. The State of Bihar, 13. The State of Bihar, through Mr. Amrit Lal Mina, Chief Secretary, vs. Mr. Anil Kumar, 14. Chanda Sinha vs. The State of Bihar, 15. Poonam Kumari vs. The State of Bihar, 16. Sudha Trivedy vs. The State of Bihar, 17. Dr. Shyam Sunder Singh vs. The State of Bihar, 18. Sunil Shahi vs. State of Bihar, 19. In view of Honble courts order dt. 19-07-2024 passed in CWJC No.6995 of 2019 vs. The State of Bihar, 20. Kumar Sidharth vs. The State of Bihar, 21. Dharam Deo Jha vs. Pushpa Devi, 22. Dr. Achyutesh Dixit vs. The Bihar State University Service Commission, 23. The State of Bihar vs. Dr. Shameem Shohreay Afaque, 24. The State of Bihar vs. Himtech Sales Private Limited, 25. Dr. Vivek Kumar vs. That Bihar State University Service Commission, 26. Sadan Chandra vs. The State of Bihar, 27. Shailesh Kumar vs. State of Bihar, 28. Om Sai Services vs. The State of Bihar, 29. Chanup Lal Raut vs. The State of Bihar, 30. Gita Mandal vs. The State of Bihar, 31. The State of Bihar vs. Ranjeet Kumar Rajak, 32. The State of Bihar vs. Ranjeet Kumar Rajak, Jyoti Joshi vs. Bihar Public Service Commission, Harsha Shekhar vs. The State of Bihar & Ors. and Pramod Kumar vs. The State of Bihar represented through the Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna.
In Pramod Kumar vs. The State of Bihar represented through the Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar, New Secretariat, Patna, Supreme Court's Division Bench of Chief Justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo and Justice Mohit Kumar Shah delivered a 6-page judgement dated January 22, 2026, wherein, it concluded:"....we find that there is no element of public interest litigation involved in this case. The construction of the Veterinary Hospital on the Government land is quite justified. Therefore, the writ petition stands dismissed.". The Public Interest Litigation was filed by the petitioner Pramod Kumar through which the petitioner had sought for a direction upon the Respondents to deconstruct or demolish the First Class Veterinary Hospital at the middle of the passage of Ahar Pyne on the land of the Minor Irrigation Department having khata number 166, Rakwa 55D and Thana number 90 which is also an Aam Gairmajarua Land. The said construction was done with help of the Bhawan Nirman Department.” The counter affidavit filed by the Joint Director, Animal Husbandry Department, Patna, Bihar in which stated that the Public Interest litigation was for demolition of constructed First Class Veterinary Hospital situated in Village Alipur Gram Panchayat- Kurkuri, P.S. Beur, P.O-Nisarpura, Dist.- Patna. The Veterinary Hospital was constructed in the same Campus adjacent to old structure of Veterinary Hospital in larger interest of the people, farmers and cattle rearers. It was constructed on Government/Public Land. The petitioners had annexed an order of the Office of District Magistrate, Patna which had been communicated to all concerned vide memo dated November 11, 2024. From perusal of the letter it transpired that for the purpose of construction of First class Veterinary Hospital an encroachment removal drive was ordered. The order of the Office of District Magistrate, Patna itself validates the construction of the First class Veterinary Hospital. The petitioner of submitted that land in question was of Minor Irrigation Department.
The judgement noted that "there is nothing on record which confirms that any Irrigational Construction has been disturbed or demolished before the construction of this First class veterinary Hospital. Moreover, only on the basis of claim of petitioner of this writ petition that in Cadastral Survey Records that part of the land is of Minor Irrigation Department is not tenable. It is worth mentioning here that in the course of time the nature of land changes and accordingly, the use also changes. 10. That, in this case the construction of a First Class Veterinary Hospital is ongoing at the same site where it was earlier operational and thus there is no change in the situs. 11. That it is in the larger public interest and taking into consideration the interest of farmers/animal keepers and others, the hospital is being constructed by the State Government.” Another counter affidavit filed on behalf of the Secretary, Minor Irrigation, Patna, Bihar, the Respondent No. 5 by the Chief Engineer, M.W.R.D., Patna stated: “7. That it is stated that Aahar, Payne, Ponds etc. are natural resources of irrigation and the Minor Water Resources Department carries out renovation and cleaning work of Aahar, Payne, Ponds etc. through its field engineers so that adequate irrigation facility could be extended to a larger agricultural area of the State. However the land of Aahar, Payne, Ponds ete. is Gair Mazarua land (public land) which belongs to the Revenue and Land Reforms Department, Govt. of Bihar and monitored by the Collector of the district through Circle Officer of the concerned Circle. The Revenue and Land Reforms Department, Govt. of Bihar issued a circular in this regard vide resolution contained in memo dated May 13, 2006." It also stated that the petitioner had earlier approached the Sub Divisional Public Grievance Redressal Officer, Patna for the same relief and having been received notice from the officer, the Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation Division, Patna called for report from the Sub Divisional Officer, Minor Irrigation Subdivision, Patna Sadar vide letter dated December 31, 2024. The Sub Divisional Officer submitted report vide letter dated January 8, 2025 stating that a Government. Veterinary Hospital was being constructed over the land in question for which 'no objection' was not issued by his office. However the local villagers informed during course of local inspection that the Circle Officer, Phulwarisharif (Patna) had made available the land for construction of hospital building after measurement and demarcation of land. It stated further that the Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation Division, Patna forwarded the report to the Sub Divisional Public Grievance Redressal Officer, Patna vide letter dated January 11, 2025 for information and needful.”
The counsel for the State submitted that this litigation was not a public interest litigation but it was a personal interest litigation and the Veterinary Hospital, which has been constructed, was adjacent to the old structure and since it would subserve the purpose of the people, the farmers, the cattle rearers of number of villages and it was constructed on the Government land, merely because a part of a patch of the Government land was used by the family of the petitioner for their access to their house, under no stretch of imagination it cannot be said that the public interest was flouted in any manner. Law is well settled that public interest litigation is to address the violation of public rights, human rights and governance and judicial overreach into the executive/legislative domain should not be made and careful scrutiny is to be made to prevent frivolous filing of the cases. Public interest litigation is not a publicity interest litigation, a
personal interest litigation or a political interest litigation and the core idea of the public interest litigation is to provide a voice to the voiceless and ensure violations of the constitutional and the legal rights of the marginalized do not go unaddressed but it is required to act with great care and circumspection.
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